If the FBI breaks into a safe, it doesn't give them access to all of the safes in the world.

In this case, they are trying to compel Apple to give them a tool that could allow them to access everyone's phone. What they are trying to force Apple to do could come right out of an Orwell novel. Plus, the systems built into the iPhone are systems all of us have a RIGHT to in our phones if we value them -- say, if we are concerned about Big Brother snooping on us and getting too Gestapo-like in the powers it takes over our lives.

On top of it, forcing a company to make a product they don't already make, or do something they don't want to do, to benefit the a government entity would be unprecedented. We may as well throw out all of our constitutional protections that allow us to be left alone from government intrusion. Simply put, the FBI should not be allowed to trample all over any of our freedoms or rights simply because it cries, "national security." It is using emotional scare tactics to try to grab power over our lives.

If Apple ever goes down without a fight on one of these government-forced backdoor issues, it loses me as a customer for life. Out of principle.

Also, the one aspect of this story that actually pleases me is that the whole thing is getting played out publicly in the court system, at least semi-transparently. Which I hope ultimately bodes well for our civil liberties. It's much scarier to me when we are left wondering what a secret FISA court is doing, and we find out from whistleblowers well after the fact that a tech company has been compromising the security of its customers at the behest of the NSA.

The flip side is that what pisses me off, is that governments' end game on this is to try to chill companies like Apple. Make them worry about being liable for the actions of their customers when they create encrypted products, so that they shy away from offering those products. And that is just not OK.

If they want to access a specific phone, get a warrant. Otherwise, fuck off.

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They have the phone. They can't get into it. If they try to get into it, the operating system is likely to erase everything on the phone -- you get a certain number of tries before that built-in security kicks in. They are trying to force Apple to give them a backdoor to bypass the security. I agree with you about the fucking off part.

It is possible one of the courts to hear this, and it will eventually go all the way to the Supreme Court, could propose a compromise whereby Apple could create the software, use it on this phone alone under court supervision, hand the FBI the data, then store said software to be used in response to specific warrants without turning it over to the government. Of course I don't them trust them either, but it might be proposed.